


We Were Like a Time-Bomb Set into Motion

by HMSLusitania



Series: Time-Bomb [1]
Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Eddie and Buck are both oblivious, M/M, Two halves of a whole idiot, canon adjacent, idiots to lovers, no beta we die like men, outsider pov, the 118 have a bet going
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-05
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-18 06:21:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29853858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HMSLusitania/pseuds/HMSLusitania
Summary: A week in the life of members of the 118 as they watch Buck and Eddie's completely platonic friendship catch fire.Good thing, then, that they're all firefighters.ORBuck and Eddie are the last to know they're in love, and it's gonna take some not so gentle nudging.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz
Series: Time-Bomb [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2196924
Comments: 50
Kudos: 610
Collections: 9-1-1 Tales





	We Were Like a Time-Bomb Set into Motion

**Author's Note:**

> In honour of the fact that today, after ten years on the force, one of my dad's shift mates has _finally_ gone on a call to a structure fire, I am now writing 9-1-1 fic. 
> 
> This fic is adjacent to the canon timeline, set slightly in the future. Fun fact, I started watching the show on Monday and I am not caught up aside from the general tumblr overviews one encounters (I'm on 3x13). If there are errors in canon, from the bottom of my heart, my bad. 
> 
> The title is from Time-Bomb by All Time Low, which is overly dramatic for this fic since this is not a dramatic fic, but hey, go big or go home.
> 
> (there are literally at least a baker's dozen other things I should be working on right now but oh well, I'm here now)

Ana is pretty sure at this point that when Eddie asks if she wants to come in for a cup of coffee after their movie date, he really does just mean coffee. Which is fine, she’s trying to convince herself. He hasn’t dated since his wife died and if he needs to take things…glacially…that’s okay with her. Dating as a single parent can’t be easy.

He lets her into his living room where they find the TV on and Eddie’s friend Buck sprawled on the couch.

“Hey,” Buck says without turning to look at them. “Chris is out. There might have been a sugar crash.”

“What’d you do, cave when he asked for hot chocolate?” Eddie asks.

“A little late for hot chocolate, isn’t it?” Ana asks.

Buck jolts around on the couch finally to look at them. Ana thinks he looks a bit like a deer in headlights.

“Uh, hey, Ana,” he says. “Didn’t realise you were here.”

“We’re grabbing coffee,” Eddie says, which, yeah, confirms her suspicions about the nature of this invitation.

“Kinda late for coffee isn’t it?” Buck asks. He doesn’t even look at her when he says it, because he’s stretching the knots out of his back from laying on Eddie’s sofa, but Ana hears the challenge in his voice. Even if Eddie has obviously moved past the skateboard incident, Buck clearly has not.

“I’m gonna go check on Chris,” Eddie announces, oblivious to the tension in the room. “Ana, please make yourself at home. Buck, thanks for looking after him.”

“You know I love that kid,” Buck replies, which clearly obviates it being any sort of favour.

Eddie disappears towards the rest of the house, leaving Buck and Ana in the living room.

“It is late,” Ana says when Buck makes no clear move to leave the couch and go home.

“Yeah,” Buck says, turning off the TV. “We’ve got an early shift in the morning, too.”

He’s volunteered the information, so she can totally use it without seeming like she’s fishing.

“Are you going to be able to keep your eyes open for your drive home?” she asks. She tries for teasing, camaraderie. She…doesn’t think she succeeds because he just stares at her blankly for a second, mouthing the words “drive home.” Finally, he catches on and jumps to his feet.

“Oh, yeah, definitely,” he says, and she thinks his voice is laced with sarcasm but why, she couldn’t say. “Tell Eddie I’ll see him at work.”

He leaves the house and she hears him drive off, and Eddie returns to the living room. He looks around in confusion for a second.

“Did Buck leave?” he asks like that is a foreign concept.

“He said he’d see you at work tomorrow,” Ana says, leading the way to the kitchen to get coffee. Eddie follows her. “It’s late, right, he had to go home and sleep.”

Eddie still looks absolutely perplexed but he doesn’t ask other questions, just starts making coffee. Ana smiles. It’ll be nice to have an evening with Eddie in a more domestic setting.

* * *

When Bobby gets to the station, Buck is passed out on the couch in the loft, in civvies, and with the throw pillow bunched under his head sporting a rather impressive drool spot. Bobby watches him sleep for a second and then sets about making coffee. C and D shifts aren’t off yet, so he makes a large pot.

Buck stirs when the coffee pot beeps and sits up to work the kinks out of his neck.

“Hey, Cap,” he says, yawning. Bobby extends coffee in his direction.

“Buck,” Bobby acknowledges. “Did you…sleep there?”

Buck nods. “Yeah.”

“Something wrong with your bunk?” Bobby asks. In all his years with the fire service, he’s pretty sure every firefighter he’s known has spent at least one night while off duty in their bunk.

“C shift got to sleep all night except for a call around two, so it was occupied,” Buck says.

“So I don’t need to be concerned about you sleeping through bells when you’re off shift?” Bobby asks. If Buck could selectively sleep through alarms, it would be impressive and probably require neurological examination.

“No,” Buck says. “Just my luck that the one night I need to crash here is also the one night no one in LA decides to have a crisis.”

Bobby laughs, but part of him starts to brace himself. They won’t have a quiet shift, guaranteed.

“So why’d Eddie kick you out?” Bobby asks. “You know you can always come stay with us if you need to.”

“Thanks, Cap,” Buck says. “It was just already late and I didn’t want to bother you guys. Or Maddie and Chim. Or anyone else.”

He has not answered Bobby’s question about Eddie.

“You’re in early, Buckaroo,” Hen says, appearing in the loft in uniform and grabbing a cup of coffee. “You and Eddie have a lover’s spat?”

“You’re very funny,” Buck says, looking a bit like he wants the floor to swallow him up.

Answers are almost forthcoming when Eddie himself appears at the top of the stairs and looks around. A boatload of tension leaves his face and shoulders when he sees Buck sitting at the counter with a cup of coffee. He tosses Buck’s shift bag in his direction and now just looks pissed off.

“The hell, man?” Eddie asks.

Buck ignores him and turns back to Hen. “You were almost right. I had a spat with _his_ lover.”

Hen catches Bobby’s eye and they both take a drink of their coffee.

“What?” Eddie asks, clearly baffled.

Buck picks up his bag. “Maybe you could tell your girlfriend you’ve got a roommate so that next time you bring her over, she doesn’t kick me out of my own house,” he says and then disappears down the stairs to the locker room.

Eddie gives Bobby and Hen a guilty, abashed look, and then turns to follow Buck.

Bobby and Hen sip their coffee.

“You sure you still want two months, Cap?” she asks at the same moment he says, “Can I change my bet?”

* * *

Chimney is working on his laces when the locker room door bursts open. Whoever it is heads for the next chunk of lockers so he can’t see them, but he sees Eddie come storming in a second later and therefore assumes the first guy was Buck.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Eddie demands.

“Why didn’t you?” Buck replies with a bit more acid than he usually uses to speak to Eddie.

“I did!” Eddie insists, and then much less strongly, “I think.”

“Well clearly she didn’t get the message,” Buck grumbles.

“Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed,” Chimney says, coming around the edge of the lockers.

“Breakroom couch, actually,” Buck says.

“Uh,” Chimney says, but before he can ask, they keep grumping at each other.

“Why didn’t you come back?” Eddie asks.

“God that would’ve been a fun expression to see,” Buck says. “She kicks me out ‘for my own good’ so I can get some sleep and I walk around the block and come right back in? Would’ve been priceless.”

“What—” Chimney tries, but again, he may as well be talking to the actual lockers for all the response he gets.

“Okay, so go around the block like, twice, or something and come back after she left!” Eddie says.

“I didn’t know how long she was going to be there for ‘coffee’,” Buck says, throwing up scare quotes.

“We literally had coffee!” Eddie says. “We haven’t – I mean—”

“Oh, I know,” Buck says, a bit derisive.

“Uh, guys?” Chimney interrupts. “What the hell is going on?”

They start explaining over each other without pausing. Something about Eddie’s girlfriend and a miscommunication that got Buck sleeping in the station.

Chimney nods slowly. “You guys are adorable,” he says. Predictably, it just sets them off again, and he leaves them to their bickering to go find food.

* * *

Maddie is babysitting when there’s a knock on the door. She checks the peephole but the woman on the other side look harmless enough, so she opens it.

“Hi, can I help you?” she asks.

The woman inspects her and then finds a polite smile sometime after her eyes have reached Maddie’s belly.

“I hope so,” she says. "I was looking for—"

“Aunt Maddie!” Chris calls from the living room. “The show is starting!”

“Just a second, Chris,” Maddie promises and turns back to the woman, who looks suddenly enlightened.

“I didn’t realise any of Eddie’s sisters were in town,” the woman says.

“Ha, no, I’m Buck’s sister,” Maddie says and the woman’s eyes widen a little. “They’re both out right now, but I can tell them you stopped by?”

“Them,” the woman repeats slowly.

Maddie feels her eyebrows lift. “Buck and Eddie? Unless you’re here to see Christopher?”

“You’d take a message for Buck here?” the woman asks. Maddie stares at her.

“I know I prefer to get my messages at my house,” she says. “My brother might be weird, but I’m pretty sure he still does normal things like that.”

“Buck _lives_ here,” the woman says.

“For a few months now,” Maddie says.

The woman looks a little like a rug has been pulled from below her feet.

“You know, I’ll just—” The woman trails off, looking uncomfortable. “Did you say they’re at work?”

“No, no,” Maddie says. “They took my fiancé out for his bachelor party. We all figured it would be easier to do that now than after the baby’s born.”

“Your fiancé’s bachelor party that they’re throwing together?” the woman asks and Maddie absolutely cannot decipher her tone, even though that’s something she does for a living.

“Yeah, they’re pretty inseparable. Between you and me, the entire 118 has a bet running on how long before they snap and figure out they’re married,” Maddie says, laughing a little. She hadn’t really believed Chim the first time he’d mentioned it, and then she spent a few days with Buck and Eddie and had made her own bet.

“I see,” the woman says, and now she’s a bit alarmed. “Thank you. I should go.”

“Should I tell them you stopped by?” Maddie asks.

The woman stammers something, but then Chris is next to Maddie tugging on her hand a bit.

“Aunt Maddie!” he insists. Then he looks at the woman in the door and says, “Oh, hi Miss Flores.”

Maddie’s stomach does a backflip that is entirely unrelated to the baby trying to kick a hole through her abdominal wall and into freedom.

“Hi, Christopher,” Miss Ana Flores – Eddie’s _girlfriend –_ says, looking a bit like she’s choking. “I’ll see you later.”

“Bye!” Christopher says, waving goodbye to her and pulling Maddie back to the show.

It’s much later that Buck, Chim, and Eddie return to their house, all three just stupid drunk.

“What’d you do with Albert?” Maddie asks.

“We locked him in an Uber,” Buck says. He giggles and starts to fall over just a little, but Eddie catches him. It almost works until he starts to fall over too. Maddie manages to aim them at the couch and they fall down in an awkward and ungainly tangle of limbs that probably mean many bruises for them tomorrow.

“But his driver was super hot, so who knows if he’s actually gonna make it home,” Eddie adds.

“Our driver was not hot,” Chim promises her, solemn.

Maddie laughs and finds a few bottles of water and asprin for Buck and Eddie, leaving them next to the couch, then drives Chimney home. It had not in any way surprised her to learn that he was a very snuggly drunk and he holds onto her like she’s his favourite thing in the whole world when she’s plied him with a lot of water and gotten him into bed.

“How was your afternoon?” he asks her, sleepily, sounding almost sober.

“Oh, it was fine,” Maddie says. “Chris and I had fun, and then I told Eddie’s girlfriend that we’re betting on him and Buck getting together.”

“Whoops,” Chim says and then giggles. “I’m sorry, that’s probably not actually funny.”

Maddie snorts. It probably isn’t, and it’s probably going to come back to bite them later, but at least Josh will get a kick out of it at work.

* * *

Hen is trying to focus on her textbook at the dining table. It should be simple, because she’s studying triage right now, which is, well, what she does every day she’s at work, and no one else is in the loft doing anything loud. No one’s playing pinball, Bobby isn’t cooking.

But Eddie is lurking at the edges of her field of vision, trying to pace a hole through the concrete floor.

“Take a picture, Edmundo, it’ll last longer,” Hen tells him when this has gone on for longer than it should.

He takes this as an invitation to sit down across from her and when she looks at him, he looks anxious.

“What’s up, buttercup?” she asks him.

“Nothing, it’s fine,” he says automatically. Hen stares at him, unimpressed. “Do I, uh, do I give off a sort of… _vibe_ …to you?”

“What kind of vibe?” Hen asks, running through a mental list of why he’d be asking her instead of Buck or Bobby. Because she’s a woman? Maybe. Because she’s black? Possibly. Because she’s a lesbian?

“Like, I dunno, like a bisexual vibe?” he asks, face twisted like he can’t fully comprehend the question he’s asking.

Hen stares at him until he starts to turn red. “Are you asking me if you ping my gaydar, Eddie?”

“Maybe?” he says, not quite able to meet her eyes.

“Should you?” she asks.

“Maybe?” he repeats, and he looks so confused that Hen starts to wonder if Bobby’s initial bet was way closer to true. “It’s just – I was getting coffee with Ana before my shift and she asked me if I was, and I don’t know why.”

Hen can take a guess on why Ana asked, after a simultaneously hilarious and concerning phone call she’d gotten from Maddie and Chim yesterday after they’d all woken up from their hangovers from Chim’s bachelor party. But Eddie and Buck aren’t supposed to know about the bet.

“What did you tell her?” Hen asks instead, because she’s pretty sure he doesn’t need relationship advice – well, he does, but that’s not what he’s asking for – he needs queer counselling.

“That I’d never thought about it?” he says.

“But now you’re thinking about it,” Hen finishes.

“Yeah,” he admits. “And I think maybe in retrospect, there were some moments where…”

“Where you watched the _Mask of Zorro_ as a kid and spent as much time staring at Antonio Banderas as Catherine Zeta-Jones?” Hen suggests. It’s a milestone movie a lot of her bisexual friends who are around Eddie’s age have brought up.

“Who doesn’t have a crush on Antonio Banderas?” he asks, and when Hen just smiles at him, he flushes and looks a little guilty. “Oh. That isn’t a very straight thing to say, is it?”

Hen shakes her head and squeezes his hand. “I’m here if you ever want to talk about it.”

He looks like he might want to talk about it then, but the bell goes and they have to head out.

* * *

Carla is straightening up the stack of waffles she’s made for the Diaz boys when she hears Eddie and Buck get home. They’re mid conversation, and she tries not to eavesdrop, generally, but they aren’t being quiet.

“I mean, have you ever thought about it?” Eddie is asking.

“Being bi?” Buck asks, and Carla starts washing the empty batter bowl a lot quieter.

“Because I hadn’t and then we were at coffee and she straight up just in the middle of the conversation asked me if I was,” Eddie says.

“Why?” Buck asks.

“I don’t know!” Eddie says. “And, like, she immediately was all, y’know, she is ‘too’ and she’s not asking because it’s a judgement, and I still can’t figure out why she even asked? Was she trying to, like, find something in common on that level, or, like suggest a threesome, which, we haven’t even—”

And Carla has to shut this down now.

“Boys!” she says, stepping out of the kitchen. They freeze in the middle of the living room. “You’re both very lucky your son is still asleep, because there were a lot of words in there you don’t want to explain to him just now.”

“Morning, Carla,” they say, both bright red at being caught.

“There’s waffles in the kitchen, boys,” she says. “Have a good day.”

“Sorry you overheard that,” Eddie says. He is clearly more embarrassed than Buck by it, but Buck is also already in the kitchen and leaning in the doorway with a waffle hanging out of his mouth, because he might be almost thirty but he’s also still a teenage boy.

“Oh, I know,” Carla says. She pats him on the cheek and heads out to her car. She’s glad she gets the door shut before she starts laughing. She feels bad for Ana, she does, but for herself, she’s a little glad. If it’s Buck that Eddie officially makes his co-parent, she’ll definitely get to keep hanging out with Christopher and that kid is a joy.

She considers calling Hen to change her bet, but decides against it.

* * *

When Chris wakes up, there are waffles waiting for him. He heads to the kitchen and his dad and his Buck are there eating their own waffles but they’ve put a plate out for Chris already fixed with butter and syrup.

“Let’s see how far you can get on those before school, okay, buddy?” his dad asks.

“I bet he can finish them all, right, Superman?” Buck asks.

Chris laughs and digs into the waffles. There isn’t cinnamon in them so Carla must have made them. Buck puts cinnamon in them when he makes them. Dad isn’t allowed to touch the waffle iron.

“Did you and Carla get all your homework done last night?” Dad asks.

“Yeah,” Chris says.

“And you didn’t need my help?” Buck asks, sounding sad. When Chris looks over at him, he has a big fake pout on his face that makes Chris laugh.

“It was math homework,” he says. “I can help you with your math homework.”

His dad and Buck burst out laughing at that.

“That’s probably true, little man,” his dad says, ruffling his hair and then kissing the top of his head.

“I’m not _that_ bad,” Buck protests. “Okay, maybe, but come on.”

“Nah, man, Chris has definitely got you beat,” his dad says.

“It’s true,” Buck admits. “It’s why he’s my favourite Diaz. He’s the smart one.”

Dad presses a hand to his heart like he’s been wounded and Chris laughs.

“Which one of us do you want to drive you to school?” Buck asks when they’ve finished breakfast and Chris has gotten himself ready for school.

“Both of you,” Chris decides.

They get him situated in the backseat of the truck and Dad lets Buck fiddle with the radio for a few minutes before thwapping his hand away from the stereo. Chris is content to sit back in his booster seat and colour while they drive.

“Oh, that question you were asking earlier?” Buck says to Dad. “ _Pirates of the Caribbean.”_

“What?” Dad asks.

“It’s on Disney,” Chris offers. He’d seen the tile for it when he and Aunt Maddie were looking for something to watch the other day. She’d said it was about pirates but that it also had a lot of big water scenes and so he’d picked something else.

“You asked if there was like a moment? It was definitely _Pirates of the Caribbean,”_ Buck says.

“Oh,” Dad says. He drums his thumbs against the steering wheel. He does that to music sometimes and Chris likes the sound. “ _Mask of Zorro.”_

“Really?” Buck asks, sounding fascinated. Chris wonders what they’re talking about. “Kinda funny they’re both movies with a lot of sword fighting.”

“Yeah,” Dad says, laughing a little.

“What’s the _Mask of Zorro?”_ Chris asks.

“We should definitely watch that one,” Dad says.

“Dude, no, there’s a scene where they drink tequila out of a jar with the guy’s brother’s pickled head in it!” Buck says.

“I – may have blocked that part out,” Dad says.

“But you just told me about it anyway so I can cover my eyes,” Chris says.

Dad and Buck exchange a look across the front seat but Chris doesn’t know what they decide because they’re at his school and he has to go.

* * *

Buck is sweating as badly as the glass of iced tea Athena gave him. He shifts in his chair, looking between her and the glass of iced tea. Athena judges how close he is to snapping and leans back in her chair, arms folded. She keeps her face perfectly neutral, well aware of how her resting face comes across. It’s served her well so many times.

Buck swallows, uncomfortable. “Did – did you say Bobby was gonna be home soon?”

Athena says nothing, but twitches the end of her eyebrow.

Buck takes a hurried sip of his iced tea and coughs like his throat is dry.

“Is he – is he mad at me?” Buck asks. “I know Eddie and I were kinda having a fight earlier this week, but it totally wasn’t a big deal and we didn’t let it affect our jobs, I promise.”

Athena wonders what thoughts go through this boy’s head on a daily basis and if the ones that aren’t about Eddie Diaz can be numbered in the single digits.

“He just – he went on a date last Friday with Ana Flores from Chris’s school and didn’t tell her I was his roommate? And so when he invited her back for coffee, she kicked me out of the house. Like, I pay rent! I live there! I’m not crashing on the couch, and I don’t know why he didn’t tell her about me, because that’s kinda weird, right? We spend _all_ our time together, I don’t think he has stories from LA that I’m not in and he doesn’t talk about Texas so like, what would they even talk about?”

Athena sighs, which is the first sound she’s made since she gave Buck the glass of iced tea.

It makes him jump, but he doesn’t spill the iced tea on her table.

“Buckaroo,” she says, not even trying for patience. “Can you think of any reason why the man you live with might not talk about you to a woman he’s trying to date?”

“Because I’m – uh, no?” He takes another drink of his iced tea. “I mean I’ve definitely mentioned him when I’ve gone out on dates.”

“And how have those dates ended up?” Athena asks.

She can almost _see_ the gears turning in the boy’s fool head.

“Not great,” he admits.

“Why do you suppose that was?” she asks. He just looks confused and she sighs. “You don’t think that maybe after listening to you talk about your ‘best friend’ the way you do for twenty minutes it became painfully obvious to anyone listening just how in love with him you are?”

He makes a strange noise, like someone’s stabbed a bagpipe. “Athena, I don’t – I’m not –”

She leans back in her chair again, arms crossed, and eyebrow raised. He sits there, mouth hanging open in shock and confusion, but his eyes are a thousand miles away.

Finally, in a very small voice, he says, “Oh god.”

He leans forward just a little like he’s falling.

“Oh, my god,” he repeats. “I can’t know that!”

“You can’t know you’re in love with Eddie?” Athena asks to make sure she’s heard him right. She’s heard some dumbass things in her life, and an uncomforting number of them have been said by Evan Buckley.

“No!” he insists, and now he has panic face and is pacing her dining room, and Athena’s going to have to tell him. “I have the worst poker face! I am _terrible_ at poker! If I know I’m in love with him, then he’s going to know like the second he looks at me, and then he’ll have to kick me out of the house for real and—”

“Buck,” she says. “Sit down and drink your iced tea.”

He sits and picks up the iced tea like he’s not fully in control of his actions.

“Yes, maybe there’s a universe where Eddie isn’t just as in love with you as you are with him, but I don’t think we’re living in that one,” she says.

“You don’t?” Buck asks.

She sighs. “The entire 118 has a betting pool going on how long it’s going to take the two of you to figure this out.”

Buck stares at her for a second, and she can see him start to get offended, so she heads him off at the pass.

“You know how sometimes people do things for you because they love you and then you misinterpret it as malicious and go off the rails?” she asks as if the last time that very thing happened, it hadn’t happened in this very room. “Please think this one all the way through before you fly off the handle.”

Buck stays to finish his iced tea and is completely silent the entire time. Athena’s not sure she’s ever spent this much time with a silent Buck unless he was unconscious in a hospital room.

He passes Bobby on his way out, but doesn’t pause to chat. He just gives Bobby a slightly hurt look, and then he’s gone. Bobby stares after him for a second and then turns to her.

“What was that about?” he asks.

“I told him about the betting pool the 118 has,” she says, taking a sip of her own iced tea.

“’Thena, why—”

“Oh please, I’m trying to win the bet for you,” she says.

“But still,” Bobby says. “Besides, weren’t you the one who said inviting him over for meals was asking for chaos?”

Athena hums in agreement. “We will not be hosting the engagement party or the wedding reception.”

She’s unsurprised when Bobby asks if they can still be the ones to organise them.

* * *

Buck gets home from Bobby and Athena’s just in time for Eddie to leave for his dinner date with Ana. They cross paths in the doorway and Eddie pauses long enough to ask if Buck is okay. Buck gives him what feels like the vaguest thumbs up he’s ever given anyone in his life and heads inside, shutting the door behind him and leaving Eddie on the porch.

He manages to snap out of the fugue state he’s been in since Athena dropped that particular bomb on him long enough to get Chris and himself some dinner, and help with his homework so he can spend the weekend doing whatever he wants, and finally get him tucked into bed.

He’s just dropped to the couch with a beer, staring vaguely at nothing because _what the fuck is this week,_ when Eddie comes home hours earlier than expected.

To Buck’s confusion, he has the same punch-drunk look on his face that Buck feels on the inside and without a word, he grabs his own beer from the kitchen and then drops to the couch next to him to do the same stare into nothingness.

They get about halfway through the beers before Buck forces himself to speak.

“You didn’t go to the movie?”

“Nah,” Eddie says, not breaking eye contact with the wall. “She, uh, broke up with me.”

“Oh,” Buck says. Something in his guts does a violent backflip either of anxiety or joy and he has to fight the urge to swear at it. “Sorry, man.”

Eddie makes a noncommittal noise and keeps staring at the wall.

At least Buck assumes he keeps staring, because he definitely hasn’t broken eye contact with it.

“It’s been the weirdest fucking week,” Buck says finally. 

“Right?” Eddie demands, and now he turns to look at Buck with some kind of desperation in his eyes. “It’s not just me, right?”

“No, definitely weird,” Buck agrees.

“Thank you!” Eddie says, and leans back against the couch so his head is tipped across the cushions and his entire neck is on display. He’d shaved for his date, and put on aftershave that Buck can smell and that he kind of wants to taste and holy fuck how did it take Athena telling him to his face for him to figure this out?

“So why’d she dump you?” he asks, leaning back as well so he can’t stare at Eddie’s neck anymore.

“You’re not gonna believe this,” Eddie says, and Buck’s stomach twists. He tries to drink beer upside down to cover, and then has a momentary coughing fit. He can only be thankful he wasn’t eating bread this time.

“I’m not gonna believe what?” he asks when he can breathe without coughing.

“The 118 have a bet out,” Eddie says. “On us.”

“And Ana dumped you for it?” Buck asks. Quite aside from the coughing, his heart is now racing with adrenaline like he’s about to rappel down a cliff or something.

“Not…specifically,” Eddie says, and to Buck’s confusion, he goes a little red.

“Is that why she asked if you were bi?” Buck asks. Finding out they were _both_ bi had probably been the most normal part of Buck’s week, frankly, even if it was apparently a shock to Eddie. For him, it had been more of a “oh, yeah, no that makes more sense.”

“Yes,” Eddie says.

“But it’s not why she broke up with you,” Buck says.

“Not directly,” Eddie says. “Why aren’t you weirded out that the 118 is betting on us?”

“Athena told me this afternoon,” Buck says. “Definitely still weirded out.”

“Oh,” Eddie says and Buck thinks he sounds almost disappointed.

“Should I not be?” he asks.

“No, yeah, it’s a weird thing for them to do, and like, I know it’s us,” he makes a circular gesture to indicate that by “us” he means the entire 118 not himself and Buck, “but even considering our total lack of normal boundaries, it’s still a little…”

“Weird,” Buck finishes.

“Yeah,” Eddie says.

They drink their beers in silence for another minute and Buck doesn’t stare at the bottle against Eddie’s lips. He won’t. He can’t jeopardise their friendship again.

“She thought they might have a point,” Eddie says all in a sudden rush, and Buck is not capable of breathing. “That’s why Ana broke up with me.”

Buck tries to hit in the ballpark of casual when he replies, but he’s not even in the same league. “Do they?”

“Do they?” Eddie repeats, meeting Buck’s terrified stare with his own.

But Buck knows there’s no way Eddie’s terrified for the same reasons he is. Eddie is terrified because he’s just figured out his best friend has been friends with him under false pretences, and Buck is – okay, well, it’s for the same reason, but he’s the asshole best friend.

“I’m sorry,” Buck says and Eddie’s entire face crumbles. Buck tries to swallow pass the instant shame that hits him. “I’ll go.”

He starts to stand – he’s not going to feel guilty about knocking on Bobby and Athena’s door in the dead of night this time since this is now at least partly Athena’s fault – but Eddie starts talking before he can.

“No, wait, Buck, I’m sorry, I’m the one who – you shouldn’t have to leave just because I’m an idiot,” he says. “We’re still friends, right?”

Buck is pretty sure something inside him is breaking again. He’s familiar enough with the sensation to know how that goes.

“I don’t know,” he says. He doesn’t know if he can still be just friends with Eddie now that he knows how stupidly in love with him he is. “I think it might kill me to be this close to you while you find someone else to fall in love with.”

He turns before he can see Eddie’s reaction and only gets half a step towards the door when Eddie grabs his wrist.

“Hang on,” he says in an entirely different, much less broken and desperate tone of voice. “What were you sorry for?”

“What?” Buck asks, turning to look at him. The crumbled look has left Eddie’s face and unless Buck is very mistaken, he’s trying not to smile.

“I asked if they were right to have a betting pool going on us and you said you were sorry,” Eddie says. He’s _definitely_ trying to hide a smile now, and Buck is…flabbergasted. “For…”

“For being in love with you?” Buck says, and the grin Eddie’s been failing to contain comes out to shine, just a hint sheepish.

“What’s the phrase?” Eddie asks and Buck cannot fathom why he’s still _smiling like that._ “Two halves of a whole idiot?”

Buck just stares at him.

“I thought you were apologising because you _didn’t_ love me,” Eddie says. “And that I’d freaked you out by being in love with you myself.”

He doesn’t quite meet Buck’s eye, but Buck doesn’t care. His insides don’t feel broken anymore, but he’s a little concerned because they do feel like they’re filling up with helium and he’s about to start floating, and then they’re gonna have to call 911 and if Maddie’s on shift, this is _not_ a call he wants her taking – or Josh for that matter since he’ll definitely call Maddie about it the second they get off the phone – and then he remembers there is no actual helium involved in the making of this moment.

“Two halves,” he starts.

“Whole idiot,” Eddie finishes.

They laugh a little, still standing awkwardly in the middle of the living room halfway between the couch and the door.

“Can I kiss you?” Buck asks.

For half a beat, he thinks Eddie might say no, but he doesn’t.

Instead, he steps closer and his eyes fall from Buck’s down to his mouth. Buck is not entirely sure which of them crosses that gap first, but it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that Eddie’s mouth is on his and he’s got one hand on the back of Buck’s neck to keep him close and his other is on Buck’s back, tugging him just that little bit closer.

Buck can’t make himself unwrap his arms from around Eddie’s shoulders, and fortunately, Eddie doesn’t seem to want him to. Definitely not when he pulls Buck’s lower lip between his teeth, and not when Buck slips his tongue into Eddie’s mouth and is treated to the sound of Eddie groaning.

Buck wants to know all of the sounds Eddie makes, as soon as possible.

Of course, this is Eddie. Eddie doesn’t sleep with someone on the first date – which, this isn’t even a date, this is an R-rated make-session in a living room – or even the fourth date. But it’s fine. It’s _Eddie_ , and Buck can use this as the opportune moment to master the art of patience that Bobby’s always on him to develop.

Until Eddie slips his hands under the hem of Buck’s shirt and sends goosebumps all the way across his torso. Buck doesn’t even realise they’re moving until Eddie backs himself into a door. Buck is too disoriented to tell if it’s his room or Eddie’s. But Eddie pulls him inside either way, forcing Buck’s shirt off as soon as they’re securely behind closed doors and out of the public areas of the house. Buck retaliates and ducks his head to kiss Eddie’s neck, which gets him another very delicious moan, and really, the problem of whose room they’re in is a problem for tomorrow Buck and Eddie.

* * *

Eddie is impressively warm when he wakes up. It’s not uncomfortable at all, and he wouldn’t really mind always feeling this warm and comfortable when he first wakes up.

Most of the heat is coming from the leg Buck has tangled around his and the arm thrown across his chest. He’s still asleep and his hair is an absolute wreck and the hickey below his collar bone is both impressively dark and well below where Buck’s uniform will show. He…doesn’t have similar hopes for his own neck. At least the stubble burn on the insides of his thighs will not be visible to anyone at the station.

He can’t extract his left arm where it’s pinned between them but he manages to get his free leg off the bed and find his jeans. It’s a delicate manoeuvre to grab them without waking Buck up, and when he sits up just a little too far to grab them, Buck makes an unhappy noise and the arm across his chest tightens. Eddie smiles to himself and keeps trying to fish his phone out of his jeans.

It lights up and has a troublingly low battery left, so he fumbles for the phone charger that has to be somewhere on Buck’s bedside table. He knows it’s there, unlike in his own room, because he’s absolutely positive Buck lays in bed scrolling through Instagram for hours past when he says he’s going to sleep.

He gets his phone plugged in and it gives its happy little buzz at being connected. That noise, too, makes Buck pout in his sleep and Eddie can’t stop himself – doesn’t want to stop himself – from turning his head to press a kiss to his face. He catches him at the birthmark and Buck smiles, but doesn’t wake up.

He checks to make sure he has no notifications and that it’s not late enough they should be up checking in on Chris. It’s still early enough that they can keep lying there and Eddie can peel his left hand free to hold his phone up while he uses his other to absently trace Buck’s tattoo.

He has one text, from Ana, that says, “I really do hope it works out for you.”

He texts back a thank you, and a second later, “I think it will.”

He waits for Buck to wake up, completely content just to lie there warm and relaxed and satisfied and _loved_ by someone he knows would do anything it takes to stay with him. And someone he would do anything to keep.

“What time is it?” Buck asks a little while later, voice heavy with sleep.

“Early,” Eddie says. “Good morning.”

“Good morning,” Buck repeats and he sounds a little nervous. Eddie wonders why for half a second and then remembers that the vast majority of people Buck’s slept with kicked him out of bed the next morning – if not immediately after.

Eddie tries to put as much reassurance into an early morning kiss as he can, and it must work, because he feels Buck smile.

“So, this is gonna be a whole thing now?” Buck asks. He peels his arm off Eddie’s stomach – a rush of room temperature air brushes across it and Eddie shivers – and pulls a tin of breath mints out of his bedside drawer.

“Really? Your bedside table has condoms, lube, and breath mints?” Eddie asks, laughing. He keeps laughing but he accepts the mints when Buck offers them.

“Habit,” Buck says and lays back down, dragging Eddie with him. Eddie can’t say he minds. Especially when the next kiss is minty fresh. “You didn’t answer my question.”

“I’d like it to be a thing,” Eddie says.

Buck nods, almost thoughtfully. “Like…boyfriends?”

“Yeah,” Eddie says. It puts a comfortably fuzzy feeling in his chest. He’s been a boyfriend. He’s never had a boyfriend. It doesn’t strike him as nearly as weird a change as he thinks it should.

“Look at us using actual communication,” Buck says.

“We did almost completely fuck it up last night,” Eddie points out.

“But we didn’t,” Buck says. “And that’s the important part. We used our words.”

“You used very few, actually,” Eddie says. “Once we got in here, at least.”

“I don’t talk with my mouth full,” Buck says.

Eddie can’t help bursting out laughing. “That’s such bullshit.”

“I’m learning,” Buck says, kissing his jaw and his neck again. Eddie hadn’t actually known just how much he liked having his neck kissed until last night and is looking forward to learning all sorts of new things.

It isn’t early enough that they can do more exploring without risking Christopher waking up and overhearing anything, so after a moment of kissing his throat some more, Buck relents and drops back to his own pillow.

“I wonder which of our asshole friends won the bet,” he says, brushing Eddie’s hair off his forehead and then running his fingers through it.

“I don’t know,” Eddie says. He leans forward and kisses Buck again. He’s not really _that_ mad about them betting on him and Buck – in the light of morning here, it’s probably one of the surer bets that’s ever gone around the station. But he really, really wants to get a little bit of revenge. “But we absolutely have to fuck with them for it.”

Buck laughs and kisses him again, and Eddie thinks – no, he knows, with a deep certainty he’s never felt before – that he’s never gonna get tired of this.

**Author's Note:**

> Please come cry with me about these completely platonic heterosexual best friends who are coparenting a child with me on [tumblr](http://hmslusitania.tumblr.com). They're killing me and it is not a slow death. I have like a half dozen AUs already rattling around in my head.


End file.
